The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-11
TEACHERS AND PUPILS.

The long vacation is at an end. The teach
PARKWAY homes. or from mountain seaside
resorts, rested and refreshed and ready to
resume the work of instilling instruction into
the youthful mind. The ideal teacher does
not look upon her duties as an irksome task
to be performed with such interest and pa
thence as can be mustered, nor upon the sal
airy as her only reward. She is full of en-
thusiasm and energy that must inevitably be
communicated, in some measure to her pu-
pills. Although trammeled by the limitations
of the system under which she labors. she re-
CARDS education as something more than the
memorizing of certain number of facts. To
her arithmetic is not merely the manipula-
ton of figures grammar is the key to a Ian
guage and not an abstract study; geography is
thing of vivid and daily interest, and alto
gether means to an end which is plainly in
sight. She sees, in short, that there is a pur-
pose in teaching far above and beyond that of
explaining the statements of the text books,
and she compels her pupils to realize that the
education they are striving for is not all a
matter of accommodating information. She
teaches them to think as we'll as to remember,
and, having done this has laid foundation
for wisdom and good citizenship that is not
always secured by graduates of the universe
ties The ideal pupil is quick to comprehend,
has retentive memory, is obedient and of
gentle manners; but the teachers labors
not with him, although he is to be found in
every school. He is her daily comfort and
consolation; but it is the dull child, the slow,
and obstinate, and inattentive pupil on whom
her energies are expended, who demands pa
thence and skill, and for whom, indeed, teach
ers are chiefly required. There are children
who will become scholars under every dis
couragernent and with little outside aid, whose
hunger for knowledge will only be satisfied
with knowledge. Not such students, but the
stupid, and lstless, and careless ones, whose
feeble intellectual faculties are coaxed and
stimulated into growth are they whose prog
ress marks the teachers ability and fitness
for her position. Are there such teachers7
Plenty of them. 1t is too much to say that
no teacher can be successful who has not a
love for her profession; but, certainly, one
who fails to put herself and her soul into the
work to some degree, cannot produce good re-
suits; the more she is interested in it for the
works sake the better the results. On the
roll of indianapolis teachers are many who are
earnest enthusiastic and filed with sense of
their responsibilities. In spite of the deadly
routine which they are forced to follow, their
individuality impresses itself upon the pupils
and their influence is not less valuable than
the lessons from the books which they expound,
and is quite as lasting in its effects. What
ever may be said of the school system and its
tendency to reduce the minds of youth to a
uniform pattern fault cannot be found with
the teachers. AS body they are faithful,
conscientious and equal to the highest demands
upon them. If they feel, at times, that their
efforts are not appreciated, it only be said
that the implicit confidence placed in them
by the parents is convincing proof to the con-
trary. 1t might be wished that this conf
dence could oftener find direct expression,
but the fact nevertheless remains that the
public has no quarrel with the teachers what
ever protests may be heard against the cast
> iron system that controls them.